It is melancholy news, and not just for campanology nerds. Across the centuries, the foundry’s bells have rung out around the world. They include Big Ben, at 13 and a half tons, the largest bell ever cast by the firm, as well as the 1752 Philadelphia Liberty Bell, the bells of the Armenian church in Chennai, south India, the Bell of Hope that commemorates victims of the 9/11 attacks – and the recast ring of eight bells at the village church in Tunstall, where I grew up.